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What are the Perceived Barriers to Homeownership for Young Adults?

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Abstract

As the U.S. emerges from the Great Recession, there is concern about slowing rates of new household formation and declining interest in homeownership, especially among younger households. Potential reasons that have been posited include tight mortgage credit and housing supply, changing preferences over tenure in the wake of the foreclosure crisis, and weak labor markets for young workers. In this paper, we examine how individual housing choices, and the stated motivations for these choices, reflect local housing affordability and individual financial circumstances, focusing particularly on young households. The analysis makes use of new individual-level data from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED). We find that housing affordability is correlated with county-level tenure rates and individual-level probability of homeownership for households with heads under age 40. However, it appears that young households' perceived barriers to homeownership are more closely related to individual financial circumstances than local housing market conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Dodini & Jeff Larrimore & Jenny Schuetz, 2016. "What are the Perceived Barriers to Homeownership for Young Adults?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-021, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2016-21
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2016.021
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    Cited by:

    1. John Simon & Tahlee Stone, 2017. "The Property Ladder after the Financial Crisis: The First Step is a Stretch but Those Who Make It Are Doing OK," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2017-05, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    2. Lee, Hyojung & Myers, Dowell & Painter, Gary & Thunell, Johanna & Zissimopoulos, Julie, 2020. "The role of parental financial assistance in the transition to homeownership by young adults," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing demand; consumer preferences; household formation; tenure choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

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